Nucleic acid quantification is a critical or desirable step in a wide variety of assays and applications. For example, nucleic acid quantification is an important step in human forensic identification. For example, short tandem repeat (STR) analysis of DNA is often based on a multiplexed PCR assay, and such assays are generally most reliable within a narrowly defined range of sample DNA concentration. If too little sample DNA is used in the assay, artifacts including allele peak height imbalance and allele drop-out can occur. If too much sample DNA is used, artifacts including increased stutter, non-specific band creation, incomplete non-template addition, and pull-up peaks resulting from incomplete color separation can occur. These artifacts can lead to difficulties in interpretation of an STR profile but can be mitigated by using an appropriate amount of sample DNA. In another example, forensic casework samples have the potential to be contaminated with non-human mammalian, bacterial, or fungal DNA which, when present, contributes to the total DNA in the sample. Accordingly, for evaluation of crime scene samples, the DNA Advisory Board to the FBI recommends the use of human-specific quantification rather than total DNA quantification, which can ensure that an appropriate amount of human DNA is subjected to amplification even if bacterial, fungal, or other non-human DNA is present is the sample.